Sunday, December 03, 2006

After a long day on Friday, I was thrilled to arrive home and find that some gracious friends of ours from Taiwan had surprised us with a superb Taiwanese dish they brought over. Inside the exotic banana leaf packaging (my photo doesn't do justice to this beautiful treat) was a delightful mixture of rice, nuts, mushrooms, and other exotic ingredients (they included a bottle of a hot and sweet pepper sauce well suited for this dish). I was so grateful for their kindness. As I chowed down on this expression of friendship from a family of mostly-Catholic friends, I felt that I was having a Zion moment - a little taste of heaven as I experienced a combination of culinary delight and undeserved kindness from wonderful friends willing to share so freely and with such love.

And that's when it hit me. Just being nice is not enough. It's good, but not sufficient for our eternal destinies. When we consider the lofty goals of Zion on earth and heaven beyond, we must realize that it will not be enough to just be surrounded by nice people. No, I believe we will be surrounded by nice people who can cook. If we are to experience heaven on earth or anywhere else, we have a lot to learn from my Catholic friends. Please, I want to be in their kingdom! And based on their love and cooking skills, I think it's got to be Celestial.

Prepare to build Zion, my brothers and sisters, by learning not just the scriptures, but also the skills of cooking and sharing good food. Christ Himself told us to feed his sheep. There is something ennobling and joyful about good food, and I am so grateful that Christ in Luke 24 showed us all the eating is still part of life once we are resurrected. Now let's get cooking!

(And I'd like to point out that if you move into my ward, you'll find that we have a couple of especially Christlike people who are known for just dropping by with delicious food. It's amazing how much ministering they do with food as a divine tool. I have been blessed many times by their kindness, as well as many others in our area. Food: in the hands of the Christlike, it's the path to the human soul.)

Its routinely taught that we carry our knowledge of this life over into the next, and continue to learn. Sure, maybe someday well learn anyway, but why not bring a bit of Zion here now by learning to cook?

I am sincerely confused. Was the family of split religion---most of them being catholic? Or were the members of the family not 100% followers of the Pope and the Catholic church making them mostly Catholic, but not totally committed?

If your friends were African American would you refer to them as mostly African American if they had some Native American Blood mixed in?

Would you like it if people referred to your family as "mostly dumb", or as "mostly talented".

"Mostly Catholic" means several are Catholic, one is not. And no, I would prefer to not have my family called "mostly dumb." "Mostly talented" would be better and closer to the truth, since my wife and kids are quite talented.

But wow, I didn't know that the word "mostly" was on the watch list offending words for some folks. OK, I'm mostly Caucasian (mostly Scottish, English, and Danish, in fact, with a touch of French), but am proud of the few drops of Native American blood in me. And I likely have some African blood and some Asian blood to boot. So yes, I'm mostly European and don't see why that should offend me, except I sometimes think I'd rather be mostly Native American. But you can't choose your genes (not with my HMO, anyway.)

Whether I say "mostly" or any other term, some of you are bound to take offense at every chance - mostly.

I would associate the spirituality of enjoying good food with hedonism more than with Catholicism. This post reminds me of the guy on the food channel who said, quite seriously, that for him, “family values” was synonymous with wine(!). Enjoying wine is the type of social, hedonistic experience you described. Rather than eating and drinking to merely subsist, you eat to titillate the senses and bond with others through lavishness.

I know drinking wine was an important part of his life during mortality, but did Jesus say anything about whether or not we’d drink wine in the next life?

I bet we'll be allowed to drink wine in the Millennium, and since that could be any day now, I'm thinking of starting my own wine cellar as part of our food storage program to help take Zion to an even higher level. One must be prepared for these things! So, should I select a white wine or a red wine to go with my wheat?